44. Spider Hunt (1)

Spider tattoos marked their foreheads, collarbones, and shoulders. The Red Spider’s Hunters pressed northward along a footpath worn through the underbrush.

“The borderlands. Damn miserable every time we come out here.”

“Hey. Step off the path and it gets a hell of a lot more miserable, so be grateful.”

Before the Great Cataclysm, search-party soldiers had once tramped up and down this path. After the whole Demilitarized Zone fell into the monsters’ hands, the Red Spider had put it to good use.

“The fuck are the man-hunters even coming down here for?”

“To catch a soft, tender human like you and toss him to the monsters as feed.”

“This son of a bitch. You wanna throw down with me?”

The Hunters growled at each other, and the senior Hunter walking up front spat to the side.

— Ptooh.

“Save your strength.”

The senior Hunter stood at the tail end of the 3rd Rank, a pro who’d hunted monsters for over ten years. He lacked the enlightenment and the raw talent to break past the wall of the 4th Rank, but he’d piled up a fair stack of stats, and with all that combat experience behind him, he was strong enough to take on both of the growling Hunters at once.

“Ah, we ain’t fighting.”

“Who’s burning up any strength?”

The two Hunters lowered their voices under the senior’s glare.

“There’s fog up ahead.”

“Was there ever fog around here?”

“The river’s not far, so it’s no strange thing.”

— Shiiing!

The senior Hunter at the front drew his hwando.

“From here on, idle chatter is forbidden. Anyone who runs his mouth, I’ll sew his lips shut — feel free to look forward to it.”

Warning delivered, the senior Hunter took the vanguard. The remaining Hunters paired off two by two and advanced toward the Black Herb farm.

Fog — that’s a first. An ill omen.

The senior Hunter had passed in and out of the Black Herb farm more times than he could count. The area got swept clear of monsters on a regular schedule, so the danger level was low. And yet for the Kaesong man-hunters, bending the weather over a stretch of land was no difficult feat.

Damn it. To get roped into a scouting job like this.

The raid on the Galaxy Pub had failed, and the crimson camouflage had been shut down. On top of that came news of the man-hunters moving south. Inside the organization, the mood seethed like an active volcano, ready to erupt at a single poke.

Well, no way the Spider goes under.

The senior Hunter didn’t take a pessimistic view of things. A spider had eight legs. A leg or two had been severed before, but the organization as a whole had never collapsed. In over twenty years lording over Ground Zero, it had weathered all manner of incidents, and the one left standing at the end of every one of them was the Red Spider.

I just have to collect my pay.

The senior Hunter shook off his stray thoughts and called Choi Hyeongtae’s orders to mind once more. If the man-hunters showed, fire a signal flare, or flip the situation and hunt the bastards down themselves.

Pay’s pretty sweet. If I can swing it, I’d like to kill them myself.

Just as the senior Hunter was smacking his lips at the thought, a black silhouette began to waver beyond the thick fog.

“Suchan. Check it.”

The Hunter at the rear opened his eyes wide. The trait let him see clean through any vision-obstructing effect, out to several hundred meters away.

“A Draconian?!”

“Look properly. Why would a dragonkin be in the borderlands.”

“M-maybe it’s the man-hunters.”

“Idiot. If the Kaesong bastards had tamed a dragonkin, they’d have come down to Ground Zero ages ago!”

At the senior Hunter’s reprimand, the Hunter widened his eyes again and let out a gasp.

“It’s undead. The eyes are burning blue.”

“That all of them?”

“A monster like a clot of blood. And a person.”

“Heeh. Lucky us.”

The higher a man-hunter’s Stellar Rank, the more monsters he kept tamed. And yet only two of them?

“Time to pocket a bonus.”

Bloodlust flickered in the eyes of the Red Spider’s Hunters. Every one of them sat at 3rd Rank, but between their gear and their command of their skills, they could run down 4th-Rank monsters without much trouble. Even if a 5th-Rank monster came leaping out, they had the skill to pull back in one piece.

How strong could some undead with no pedigree even be?

Undead monsters didn’t crop up in the Kaesong and Paju region. That meant the undead the man-hunters drove around had to be naturally occurring dead, 3rd Rank at the very most.

“Suchan. You give the signal.”

The silhouette beyond the fog thickened bit by bit. The Hunter who’d pinned down the intruders’ exact position with Eagle’s Eye swept his hand down.

A broad surge of electricity raked across the ground as it rushed the intruders, and a spear honed keen with cold air buried itself in the torso of the Draconian-like undead.

“Did we get it?”

The moment a Hunter muttered it, an answer leapt out from the opposite side.

— What’s this. They aimed right for us.

“It’s the Eagle’s Eye trait.”

— Tch. And here I was creeping along nice and quiet for the surprise.

“The fog’s thick, but not thick enough to hide a hulk like you.”

The party revealed itself beyond the pale, hazy drift of air. Yujin and Fafnir traded words as easily as if they were out for a stroll.

— Tok. Tok.

The ice spear sloughed off with a wave or two of his hand. The lightning had spread too thin, losing its force and scattering without so much as passing through a single scale.

— My body was feeling a bit rundown anyway, and they go and give me an acupuncture session, a little stimulation too.

“You want me to give you a massage?”

— Hu hu hu. With my master’s grip strength, I wouldn’t even feel it.

Master and undead bantered on as if the Red Spider’s Hunters weren’t even in their field of view.

“These goddamn bastards.”

The senior Hunter’s face flushed red. Being looked down on by Yujin sent rage surging up through him.

“Fafnir. Looks like he’s mad because of you.”

— Hmm. Then I’d better make sure he can’t get any madder.

“I’ll lend a hand.”

Snickering, Yujin invoked his holy spells.

Strengthened by the triple buff, Fafnir’s eyes blazed with menace.

— Master. Mind if I take this one solo this time?

“Suit yourself.”

— I’ll show you the strength I’ve grown into.

Fafnir bent his knees. He leaned his upper body forward, gathering Dark Fighting-Aura into his feet.

— Tukok!

Just as when he’d shattered a Troll’s skull by the river, he loosed the power beneath his feet and leapt.

“E-enemy incoming!”

“Don’t need the eyes to know that.”

He moved like a streak of light. A distance a grown man would need twenty seconds to sprint, he closed in under one.

The Red Spider’s Hunters were still reeling at the explosive force of Fafnir’s charge.

Only the senior Hunter reacted. Stepping forward, he blocked the black silhouette’s charging line.

A surprise attack won’t work inside my Detection Field.

A skill that never failed to parry a recognized opponent’s attack, fused with a sword-draw art. The hwando tore from its sheath in a shower of sparks, and for a single instant a blue flash blazed. The blow wrung every ounce of performance from both skills and the weapon.

This technique’s caught even the aura of a 4th-Rank.

Unable to break the wall, the senior Hunter had crafted this killing blow by calculating the synergy of his ability and his gear to the absolute maximum.

The man-hunter’s undead was faster than he’d expected, but that was all.

Cut it down in one stroke, then kill the man-hunter too.

The dark-shrouded giant and the single streak of light collided.

— Kwadeuk.

“Huh?”

His body floated up into the air, and the senior Hunter’s vision flipped clean over. A beat too late, his snapped blade and an unscratched Fafnir swam into view. The shadow of death had fallen over him, and he knew it.

This isn’t right.

— That attack just now. Move the mana a tenth of a second faster and it’d have been twice as strong.

That undead. What the hell is it babbling about?

The senior Hunter, hanging suspended in midair, worked his mouth, but from vocal cords shattered in the collision came only the hollow hiss of escaping air.

“D-damn…!”

“Wreck ’em!”

The Hunters who’d watched the senior die spent their hidden trump cards without holding back. Electricity cranked to maximum output. A full swing that could cleave a house-sized boulder. A fatal thrust that punched through any defense.

— Somehow weaker than the first one.

A black current wrapped his whole body. Breathing Dark Fighting-Aura into every last scale, he took the Red Spider Hunters’ attacks without lifting a finger.

— This time it’s my turn.

Afterimages bloomed in the empty air with every thrown punch.

“Kuk!”

“Kr…”

The Red Spider’s Hunters couldn’t counter a single one of Fafnir’s blows. Sheer domination.

Weaker? Them?

Yujin shook his head. The slashing strike from the senior Hunter who’d blocked Fafnir had carried more threat than Jo Seungcheol’s flame magic.

He’s a guy who’s been grinding away at the 3rd Rank for over ten years, I’d bet.

The other Hunters weren’t a step behind the ones who’d guarded the crimson camouflage, either. A month ago, they’d have been the sort of enemy he’d have had to wring out his full strength against.

That’s how much stronger he’s gotten.

What a comparison. Still, Yujin privately agreed with Kronos.

His way of handling Dark Fighting-Aura has changed too.

By venting Dark Fighting-Aura through his whole body, he’d pushed his output even higher. The mana drain would be far heavier, but the destructive force of his charge had climbed by just as much.

He’s developing a method that suits a Draconian’s body.

The style was a far cry from Park Haneul, who in his past life had climbed all the way to Hell Knight. Not satisfied with merely adapting to a Draconian’s body, he was busy mastering a way to wield Dark Fighting-Aura that fit his frame. It felt like only yesterday he’d been getting beaten black and blue at the Arahan Guild. A genius really was a different breed.

“D-dammit!”

The Hunter who’d used Eagle’s Eye pulled an emergency communication scroll from his coat.

— Riiip.

“You’re all fucking dead. The second they see this signal, they’ll all come swarming—”

“What. Something not working?”

The magic scroll burned away in black flames. Within the Necropolis’s sphere of influence, communication magic jammed. A radio running on actual signal waves would have worked without a hitch.

“Hah. My life.”

— Kwadeuk.

Fafnir wrenched the head of the Hunter, who’d given up even on resistance, the wrong way around.

“Survivors?”

— That one was the last.

“Moving up to 4th Rank really did sharpen your skills.”

— Now the Dark Fighting-Aura moves the way I want it to. Back at 3rd Rank it was a bit off.

“You were probably forcing power that didn’t match your realm.”

— Hu hu. I’m looking forward to the day I get back to my original realm.

In a single month, Fafnir had achieved astonishing growth. He hadn’t merely climbed in Stellar Rank; he’d drawn the new body’s strength out to its fullest. In his past life he’d risen all the way to Hell Knight. Built on the frame of a Draconian, just how strong could he grow?

Now this I’m looking forward to.

Yujin licked his lips.

For several days, Yujin’s party prowled the area around the Black Herb farm. More than one team was moving along the footpaths.

— What number was that one?

“Seven.”

— They’re all so middling it takes the fun out of fighting.

Fresh off a battle, Fafnir threw a jab into the empty air as if in regret. The Hunters sprawled out before them would have wept tears of blood to hear it.

They’re already dead, so they won’t be hearing it.

Even 4th-Rank Hunters were no match for Fafnir. He was an Eldritch Dragon forged from a Draconian corpse, and calling him 4th Rank was generous. A monster with quasi-5th-Rank specs, housing a soul that in life had crossed the wall of the 6th Rank. How was anyone supposed to win against that?

“Kihihihiii!”

A wraith howled. One more band of Red Spider Hunters lurked nearby.

“So they deliberately kept their distance.”

— The bastards. Looks like they were thinking of a pincer attack.

“They just didn’t expect it to get wrapped up this fast.”

— Shall I take out the remaining Hunters too?

“Let’s pull back for today.”

Fafnir’s eyes, or rather the blue flames that served in their place, wavered wide.

— I can keep going all day.

“Hold it in. There are still plenty of guys left to fight.”

— You held back last time too, even though you had power to spare. Is there a reason?

“We’re leaving traces.”

There were Fafnir’s footprints, and from the marks of battle, anyone could tell at a glance this wasn’t the work of a “human.”

“Let them think it’s the man-hunters’ doing.”

— Hoh. And so?

“Their fighting strength’s been worn down a fair bit too. Now they’ll start thinking about all-out war.”

— I heard the Red Spider’s boss is a 6th Rank, though.

“He can’t come out.”

Yujin was certain. Old man Jeong held the same 6th Rank as the boss, Kim Jaewoo. If Kim Jaewoo left his post, there’d be no stopping the Madam’s moves.

— Things in this world don’t always go the way you want, though.

“If the bastard comes, that works just fine too. It makes it easier for the Madam to move.”

Even if Kim Jaewoo came in person, Yujin was confident he could run. He’d just have to give up a Black Obelisk or so in exchange. Whichever way the Red Spider chose, it cost Yujin nothing.

— So you’re luring them out.

“They’ve got no choice but to bite the bait.”

Yujin raised the Hunters’ corpses with Raise Undead. The Kaesong man-hunters were after human flesh, so to mimic them, he had to clear the bodies away too.

“Let’s head back, then. There’s prep to do.”

A few minutes later, the Red Spider’s other Hunters discovered the traces of battle carved into the ground and retreated in terror.